KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Two brothers who are on death row for murder are set to face a “hasty execution” tomorrow morning, March 15, merely two days after prison authorities notified their kin about the execution, Amnesty International Malaysia.
Amnesty also said that it will be organising a candlelight vigil at the main entrance of the Kajang prison at 8pm tonight in solidarity with Rames and Suthar Batumalai.
“Amnesty International Malaysia condemns the decision to execute the brothers, which seems to be made in a hurried and secretive manner,” it said in a statement.
“Malaysia carries out executions on Friday mornings and this double execution would be the first ever execution that we are aware of to take place on a Wednesday morning. This is symbolic of the rushed nature of this particular execution,” Amnesty International Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni Kalimuthu said today.
The NGO also believes that the brothers were convicted based on circumstantial evidence alone, and pointed out that the Pardons Board did not consider their pardon appeal even though their appeal included a statutory declaration from deceased’s wife.
“This application includes a statutory declaration from the wife of the deceased, appealing to the Pardons Board for the brothers not be executed and instead be allowed to serve a life sentence,” Amnesty said.
“If the victim’s family has moved to intercept the execution, the Pardons Board should consider this and allow for every avenue to be exhausted before the State even considers taking a life,” Shamini said.
Their family has been asked to pay their last visit to the duo today ahead of the execution.
